castelletta
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Poor Bluetooth reception and jerky mouse

I want to share my findings upon the poor reception of the internal Bluetooth module on my 2009 Mac Pro. The mouse in particular seems to suffer the most from the low BT signal.

It has to be said that if you succeed to place your Mac Pro in a particular position you can obtain optimal mouse reception. It seems that the field covered by BT signal is very irregular (due to the aluminum case?) and I think also altered by other metal objects that can exist on your desk (or inside/under you desk and his structure).

This can explain why some users tell of fantastic BT reception with their Mac Pro and others (majority) complain about awful Magic Mouse tracking.

In my situation I've been forced to plug-in a D-LINK DBT-120 dongle. It performs very well and maintain always connection with mouse and keyboard upon restart......unfortunately the same peripherals can't awake my Mac Pro during the sleep mode. A little uncomfortable (because you have to press the power button) and I thing very strange since this dongle is considered the only BT dongle fully supported from Apple.

I tried other dongles but all seem to lose connection. Some after restart, others after sleep mode.

For sure it's a shame that the most powerful and most expensive machine that Apple is selling right now is so badly performing in the BT compartment and it's more unforgivable since Apple seems to push very much their wireless peripherals.

Ok Apple, it's not easy to grant a powerful BT antenna in the metal case of the Mac Pro? Well please provide or support an external module that fully support all Mac OS functions (key selection on startup, wake on sleep ... etc) and consistently. I don't think it's a science fiction task.

I'm waiting your experimentation in placing your Mac Pro differently.

Please share your experiences....thank you

MacPro 2009 - 8 core, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Nov 12, 2009 8:24 AM

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castelletta

Q: Poor Bluetooth reception and jerky mouse

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  • by stocky2605,

    stocky2605 stocky2605 Feb 25, 2010 11:03 AM in response to castelletta
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Feb 25, 2010 11:03 AM in response to castelletta
    Same to me here, MacPro1,1 2x 2,66 GHz.

    Since I don't have an internel airport interface I don't have different antenna cables for workaround. Just one BT cable. I was using the MM today with my Macbook Pro and can confirm that MM is really working very, very well.

    On my MacPro it drives me crazy. I moved my MacPro to different locations under my desk (now right hand side under my desk) and removed battery cover from MM. It works fine for a while and suddenly the problem is back.

    Buying an external BT dongle may not be a solution after reading this thread. Or should I? Which one? DB-120/122 is outsold here in Germany Are there any quality issues or is it OK just to buy the next available one?

    Thank you (MM works fine since 13 minutes)

  • by Holger_S,

    Holger_S Holger_S Feb 25, 2010 2:31 PM in response to stocky2605
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 25, 2010 2:31 PM in response to stocky2605
    Hello stocky2605,

    many greetings from Germany

    I am sorry, the Bluetooth dongle is not a fine working solution. I bought a Belkin USB Mini Bluetooth stick (you can find this in Apple Store, product is shown with a sign compatible with Mac). By using the stick my Magic Mouse is better to use, connection is lost not so often, handling is not real better and in competition with my Macbook white it is real worse. And - Stick: there is no chance than to wake up (function is disabled).

    So I spend now enough money and time to this bug. I am now using my normal non bluetooth wireless mouse and keyboard.

    Apple & Bluetooth in Mac Pro - it is miracle? I do not have seen a bug like this with my Win-PC's. It is real a big next thing...

    Best regards

    Holger_S

  • by stocky2605,

    stocky2605 stocky2605 Feb 25, 2010 10:27 PM in response to castelletta
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Feb 25, 2010 10:27 PM in response to castelletta
    Thanx for the hint regarding Belkin mini!

    By the way: I've sent feedback to Apple as mentioned here, let's see, what the results are...

  • by castelletta,

    castelletta castelletta Feb 26, 2010 1:29 AM in response to stocky2605
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 26, 2010 1:29 AM in response to stocky2605
    TO ALL THE COMPLAINING PEOPLE:

    As recent history suggest it seems that Apple fixes problems that are boldly reported by newspapers worldwide......and our Mac Pro Bluetooth problem never reached media attention (as Mac Pro Audio problem has done).

    If someone can put that flaw to the global attention I think that we will likely see some clear steps toward problem resolution.

  • by stocky2605,

    stocky2605 stocky2605 Feb 26, 2010 8:13 AM in response to castelletta
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Feb 26, 2010 8:13 AM in response to castelletta
    Just back to report that MM worked today without any problems with my Mac Pro. I used the mouse for about 8 hrs with some short breaks (Launch etc.).

    I removed the battery cover, the Mac Pro is located on my right hand side under the desk. The mouse is on the desk, of course, and is positioned exactly above the Mac Pro (distance betwenn MM and Mac Pro 30 cm (12 ")).

    As I mentioned before there is no Airport Card installed inside the Mac Pro. Therefore no addt'l (misslabeled) cables. Does this mean everything is right labeled and the right cable is used? Maybe?

    Have a nice weekend

  • by skullcat,

    skullcat skullcat Feb 26, 2010 8:27 AM in response to stocky2605
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 26, 2010 8:27 AM in response to stocky2605
    Stocky, I also had a perfectly-working MM yesterday, and I also removed the battery cover. This is after over 2 weeks of not ONE day it working properly.

    I can't help but wonder if there is an interference issue with the MM? I have another bluetooth mouse and it works fine (but I really want to use the MM because I like the non-button scrolling feature, and 'tap' clicking). I wonder if neighbouring office equipment (phones, wireless devices?) could possibly interfere with it? My MM problems exist even if I turn off all other computers and Airport.

  • by Mosaica,

    Mosaica Mosaica Feb 26, 2010 10:27 AM in response to skullcat
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Feb 26, 2010 10:27 AM in response to skullcat
    It is not an interference problem.

    Yes, the signal strenght is higher to the MM with the battery cover off. It still has drop offs, however, with the battery cover off.

  • by derivativemusic,

    derivativemusic derivativemusic Feb 26, 2010 2:55 PM in response to castelletta
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Feb 26, 2010 2:55 PM in response to castelletta
    How are you people getting USB bluetooth adapters to work? I've tried two different ones in my 3,1 MP 8x2.8, and as soon as I plug one in the Mac says there's no bluetooth hardware.

    Yes I deleted the bluetooth prefs and restarted, yes I mean a USB bluetooth dongle or whatever you want to call it, and yes I checked whether the Airport/bluetooth thing is wired properly but there's no Airport card.

    My machine is about 5' away, but it's on the other side of a wall. The old BT mouse works with an unusable lag, but the new one doesn't work at all. Therefore I figured having the USB adapter closer by might work. Alas.

    TIA

  • by mluters,

    mluters mluters Mar 6, 2010 5:37 PM in response to derivativemusic
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 6, 2010 5:37 PM in response to derivativemusic
    derivativemusic

    I just installed a D-Link DBT-120 on my 2009 Mac Pro and it has made a huge difference for my Apple bluetooth keyboard. The original connection was unusable and now with the DBT-120 I can hold a constant connection.

  • by derivativemusic,

    derivativemusic derivativemusic Mar 10, 2010 9:19 PM in response to castelletta
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Mar 10, 2010 9:19 PM in response to castelletta
    Thanks very much. I'll look into the D-Link one.

    Did the machine simply know to use it rather than the built-in BT, or did you have to do something to tell it you have a new one?

  • by castelletta,

    castelletta castelletta Mar 11, 2010 1:14 AM in response to derivativemusic
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 11, 2010 1:14 AM in response to derivativemusic
    Simply plug it in. The system will recognize it and switch to it in about 10 seconds.
    Please in the attempt to avoid strange behavior, before this, trash the bluetooth preferences in /Library/Preferences and restart. Then pair wireless mouse and/or keyboard.

  • by Mark Delgrosso,

    Mark Delgrosso Mark Delgrosso Mar 11, 2010 4:55 AM in response to castelletta
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 11, 2010 4:55 AM in response to castelletta
    Just make sure you NEVER EVER put the system to sleep. You can't wake it up without a wired keyboard. This is such a joke.

  • by castelletta,

    castelletta castelletta Mar 11, 2010 5:22 AM in response to Mark Delgrosso
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 11, 2010 5:22 AM in response to Mark Delgrosso
    This is not true. The only thing that you have to do while MacPro is sleeping is to press the power button on the front of the tower and the MacPro wakes up.

    It's not optimal, sure, but not so hard to do.

  • by Mark Delgrosso,

    Mark Delgrosso Mark Delgrosso Mar 11, 2010 11:19 AM in response to castelletta
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 11, 2010 11:19 AM in response to castelletta
    It is if your tower is on a cart under your desk.
    I think it's still unacceptable. Plus they need to redesign the Magic Mouse. After hours of use, your hand can start to cramp. It's not ergonomically correct like the Mighty Mouse. It's profile is so low your hand almost lies flat. Plus there are are only two buttons and the Mighty Mouse has 5.

  • by castelletta,

    castelletta castelletta Mar 12, 2010 1:33 AM in response to Mark Delgrosso
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 12, 2010 1:33 AM in response to Mark Delgrosso
    I agree with you, it's not a great solution at all but it seems that Apple is sleeping on this issue....

    Regarding the Magic Mouse...one have to choose the mouse that fits better his hand, not only his eye
    If you complain about the buttons lack I presume that you don't know MagicPrefs at all... true?
    This control panel allows you to config all type of shortcuts just like those possible with the Mighty Mouse and additional ones.
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